It's not very often that I quote great chunks of any party leaders speech here, but this lot came from Theresa May yesterday:
Yet within our society today, we see division and unfairness all around. Between a more prosperous older generation and a struggling younger generation. Between the wealth of London and the rest of the country.
But perhaps most of all, between the rich, the successful and the powerful - and their fellow citizens.
Now don't get me wrong. We applaud success. We want people to get on.
But we also value something else: the spirit of citizenship.
That spirit that means you respect the bonds and obligations that make our society work. That means a commitment to the men and women who live around you, who work for you, who buy the goods and services you sell.
That spirit that means recognising the social contract that says you train up local young people before you take on cheap labour from overseas.
That spirit that means you do as others do, and pay your fair share of tax.
But today, too many people in positions of power behave as though they have more in common with international elites than with the people down the road, the people they employ, the people they pass in the street.
But if you believe you're a citizen of the world, you're a citizen of nowhere. You don't understand what the very word ‘citizenship' means.
So if you're a boss who earns a fortune but doesn't look after your staff…
An international company that treats tax laws as an optional extra…
A household name that refuses to work with the authorities even to fight terrorism…
A director who takes out massive dividends while knowing that the company pension is about to go bust…
I'm putting you on warning. This can't go on anymore.
No, I'm not becoming a Tory, any more than I am becoming anything else, but this is worth noting.
First because that was a Conservative speech, not a liberal one. There's little of the spirit of Chicago, or even Manchester, in there.
Second, because whilst there is a lot about what has been said in Birmingham that I greatly dislike, this has merit to it.
And third, because this suggests that Theresa May has real work to do.
The last matters to me. If she really thinks she is going to change corporate culture she has to indicate that she wants them to do so. The clearest way to do this is to change Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 which lays out the duties directors have to their shareholders and to other parties. That section actually says:
A director of a company must act in the way he considers, in good faith, would be most likely to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole, and in doing so have regard (amongst other matters) to–
(a) the likely consequences of any decision in the long term,
(b) the interests of the company's employees,
(c) the need to foster the company's business relationships with suppliers, customers and others,
(d) the impact of the company's operations on the community and the environment,
(e) the desirability of the company maintaining a reputation for high standards of business conduct, and
(f) the need to act fairly as between members of the company.
Let's suppose Theresa May really thinks what she says. Then she could reform Section 172 to say:
A director of a company must act in the way he or she considers, in good faith, would be most likely to promote the success of the company for the benefit of all who deal with it, and in doing so have regard (amongst other matters) to–
(a) the members of the company and their expectation of enjoying a reasonable return on their capital;
(b) the likely consequences of any decision in the long term,
(c) the interests of the company's employees,
(d) the need to foster the company's business relationships with suppliers, customers and others,
(e) the obligation of the company to settle its tax liabilities,
(f) the impact of the company's operations on the community and the environment,
(g) the desirability of the company maintaining a reputation for high standards of business conduct, and
(h) the need to act fairly as between members of the company.
Changes are highlighted in red.
I suspect with a little time I would refine that further, but I think my point is clear. Theresa May could make these changes and out in place the environment she wants. But will she?
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These are fine words from May but we have heard much of the same ‘rhetoric of caring’ from Cameron in the past . The Tories say one thing and do another. It could be part of a tactic to make the Tories look as though they are caring about the country whilst their nearest competitior (Labour) fights amongst itself.
Let us not forget that it is the Tories that fly the Union Jack but privatise and therefore help sell our assets to foreigners making it harder to insist on such decent ways of running buisnesses.
And too many British Governments in the past have pandered to international finance and trade deals to the detriment of British firms. Where was the British Government when asset strippers were besieging the country in the 1970’s?
As you are suggesting – we shall see.
I thought you wrote her speech, Richard 🙂
Joking aside, if you read that without knowing it came from the mouth of a Tory you’d be nodding in agreement all the way through. There’s nothing to disagree with there. Of course, much of it sits uncomfortably with the policy pronouncements of sentiments expressed by other ministers this past week – Amber Rudd’s probably being the worst example (but given her lack of a moral compass that’s not surprising). And as we know May is a control freak and so will have ok’ed all those speeches we have to take it she agrees. So, we shall see. But as you say, there are some relatively quick and easy things she could do to prove there’s substance to her statements. Let’s see what we get by Xmas.
Ivan
I agree: I also suspect we will not get a lot
Richard
let’s be clear: This would NOT have happened (in My view) without Corbyn. Despite the Tories trying to see Corbyn as a ‘joke’ they have clearly run for the Andrex when he was re-elected and Labour membership rose to 515,000. They won’t admit this of course.
let’s be clear about another thing: These words were spoken by a person who sat still and unresponsive when the last government attacked, sytematically and socially stigmatised the poorest and most vulnerable in our communities. They uses language framing very deliberately to groom the population. Theresa MAy said nothing-not a murmur-not even a homeopathic hint of concern, not a stifled fart’s worth of unease that would even create a vague wrinkle of a facial muscle -in short she couldn’t have cared less.
Now-when political expediency dictates she jauntily asserts, it’s time for change. No expression of regret, no humility or admission that choices were made that were cruel on purely ideological grounds just a jaunty ‘it’s time for change.’ What sort of human being does this -as far as I’m concerned, a time-serving shyster of the worst sort, a lickspittle of the perceived vox populi who has no central principle other than that which forwards themselves.
let’s also be clear: This is a Tory Party speaking with a forked tongue of many tines: on the on hand they talk of a ‘centre’ in order to pull in the ‘moderate’ Labour voter who didn’t want Corbyn whilst AT THE SAME TIME trying to pull in the UKIP voter by coming out with ghastly rhetoric about immigrants keeping the ‘British Wage’ low and giving a speech that James O’brien considered an echo of Mein Kampf (http://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/james-obrien/james-amber-rudds-speech-echoes-mein-kampf/)
If the Government eases off bashing the poor and the ill then that is a good thing, but not because THEY are good. let’s be clear (sorry about the Obamaism) most of this will amount to mere mouth-farting to appease and do no more, Just as May’s speech after her accession talked about ‘we will help you.’
labour need to expose the lies and bluster as it emerges from every Tory orifice.
My assessment so far: Verbal diarrhoea with a good measure of vile xenophobia. The public will drink it, I expect but it won;t taste good.
I was listening to John Humphreys on Radio 4 this morning talking to Owen Smith asking why Jeremy Corbyn had not been saying these things contained in May’s speech. Smith pointed out that HE had mentioned them (which is really bad in my view and comes across as pointing to a lack of unity still in the LP).
But the thing is David Miliband and Corbyn HAVE mentioned these issues in speeches too (as has Smith). Where has Humphrey been of late? He was simply wrong when he said that.
This is not journalism at all.
It’s learning Tory lies by rote.
PSR -it’s the BBC-why the surprise?
Simon – I’m not surprised I just wanted to recount what I heard because as I said, the same old crap is being spoken about and if it is repeated often enough we know whay happens.
Namely that received wisdom becomes fact; myths become facts and then we wonder why no one seems able to do anything about our problems because that recieved wisdom becomes the cage we put around ourselves so that we are less receptive to say the ideas put forward in this blog and elsewhere whose time has come – ideas that should at least be tried.
Actions speak louder than words and the only action we have seen so far is to create more “division and unfairness” by dividing kids at age 11, despite all the evidence suggesting it does not improve outcomes.
When we see real investment in education and skills for everyone, then I will start applauding.
I think you are right to wait for tangible evidence
What is likely, in my view is that the Tories will JUST do enough to take the edge off things while preserving the financial interests of their main constituency.
So don’t expect too much social housing, for example! They will do a bit but not enough to make in roads into the bubble.
If I’m wrong here, to quote a Dickens character: ‘I’ll eat my face.’
I do not think that you are wrong Simon.
As far as I am concerned, with BREXIT to be completed in 2019, the 2020 election has already been won by the Tories.
So from 2020 we may see a Tory party getting back on track with the Cameron/Osbourne (Maude/Letwin) agenda renewed. And I hope that I am wrong – of course.
PSR- I think what you say is likely, unfortunately. Now that May/Rudd have switched to ‘Johnny Foreigner’ as the scapegoat the heat is off the disabled/ill/vulnerable/poor who were used by Osborne/Cameron as the scapegoat. If they consolidate power on the basis of Xenophobia they will have to return to the poor as a scapegoat once that scapegoat is unusable.
Once again when you think the Tories can’t sink lower, a trap door opens to reveal a further abyss.
I would welcome Theresa May’s socialist talk, if it wasn’t accompanied by increasingly nationalistic talk. National and socialist is a dangerous combination … and rarely turns out to be actually socialist in the end.